Fall Time

Applesauce

Mashing apples into the strainer for applesauce

The garden is dying back as the temperatures drop...as they have (suddenly) this week. But the apples are ready. Once again, just like with the the peaches, we are beneficiaries of the generosity of cool back-door neighbors who own a prolific apple tree. This week I got to work making applesauce. I tried to accomplish this one day while the kids were in school, Tillman helping out when he got home from kindergarten. Unfortunately, it took me ALL DAY and into the night. (...and we only ended up with 12 quarts!) Now I remember why I always buy cases of applesauce when there's a case-lot sale at the grocery store: applesauce is a ton of work - well, at least it's long work. But homemade applesauce is about 10 times better than the stuff you buy at the store. So I try to produce enough to at least have some on hand when I feel like the good stuff.

Tillman sorting apples into the sink

Totally unrelated...

Here's a shot of Sully cuddling up with a dirty diaper. He has this hilarious habit of finding his dirty diapers before they make it outside to the trash and snuggling them (and sometimes stashing them in out-of-the-way places where we later discover them... by smell). It's hard to get a good picture of him in the act since he's always on the move.

Rattle Snake Gulch to Pipeline - 10/10/09
We managed to make it up to the mountains this weekend for a fall hike. It was a debate whether Albion Basin would be passable after all the snow of last week...and temperatures have not warmed much. But early Saturday morning we were still undecided. Then my brother Casey called out of the blue to see if we wanted to go hiking. He thought Solitude Lake - but the snowfall was an issue there as well. Finally he suggested Rattle Snake Gulch to Pipeline - a trail up Millcreek Canyon (Casey's years of rock climbing and Salt Lake County Search and Rescue pay off with unlimited ideas for hikes up his sleeve - many that we've never heard of). It was a beautiful 3 mile round trip, complete with an actual rattle snake sighting.

Jess, Helen, Hal, & Grace



Kids, Mike and Casey - Casey has a sweet barrel/pack for his rock-climbing gear which is also suitable for packing children - Soph's main ride.




Not such a great shot cross-canyon because of the morning haze. The colors were amazing in real life.



Are you kidding me!? Two rattle snakes coiled up in their den at the side of the trail. (Noble was SO stoked.)



Beautiful lichens



These kids love to hike (Grace, T and a friend)



I love Utah mountains - specifically Fall in the mountains.

Parent Teacher Conferences = Fall is HERE

Winners from last year's Sullivan Halloween party

Grace has been on my case to put up the Halloween decorations for about 2 weeks solid. I kept putting her off with, "as soon as October is here." This past Thursday night she reminded me that October had arrived. I was kind of tired after parent teacher conferences (see below) & I had a cold, but the kids insisted.

Fall is my #1 favorite time of the year. I had really wanted to get up to Cecret Lake with the kids this weekend to see the leaves, but the weather didn't cooperate.

Grace at Cecret Lake last summer

Wednesday temps were in the 90 degree range, the rest of the week it's been 40-50-ish, snowing in the mountains, raining in town. Oh well...we've got a ghost hanging next to the front door. A fire in the fireplace. Fall is here.

Among a bunch of other stuff that we did on Thursday, Mike and I made it over to the school for parent teacher conferences. Two of them gave me cause to worry. For the first time ever we had a teacher have a serious talk with us about a child's behavior in class, and another teacher shock us with the news that one of our children had a couple of very low grades (we were under the impression this child was doing well). By this time of the day, because of my cold, I had reached the limits of my stamina and was like..."What are we talking about?" The main thing I got from p/t conferences: I need to be in the classroom more so I know what the heck is going on.

News on the school-front is not all bad, and I'm not completely out of that loop: Tillman is making fast progress with his reading, and impressing his Kindergarten teacher. Grace is thoroughly enjoying herself at school, writing pages and pages of stories, and proudly tells us that she is very good at math. Noble has A's in every subject and continues to bring in "supplemental" material from home to contribute to whatever topic his class may be studying. Jess will be playing Hermia in her class production of A Mid-Summer Night's Dream in November. She is super excited and has related the entire plot-line to anyone who will listen.

Also, this weekend we watched LDS General Conference - our twice-yearly tradition. My kids have gotten pretty good at sitting through most of the four 2-hour sessions over two days. They actually kind of look forward to it... of course that might have something to do with activity packets, candy, and an open buffet of munchies in the kitchen. But talking with them tonight they actually absorbed one or two things from the sermons. I was rapt, as much as one can be with 5 kids squirming around. I was struck by Elder David Bednar's counsel to remove hypocrisy from our lives, by Elder Jeffrey Holland's testimony of the Book of Mormon, and many other moments. I love Conference time.

LSAT news (and dino toes)

Sad / tired Sully at bath time.

I love these socks (and leggings too) that I bought for Sully last year. I still giggle when I see him walking around in them.

News from this weekend:

While Mike was gone taking the LSAT most of the day Saturday we:

mowed the lawn...

... and started apple picking. We also cleaned the house for yet another showing. (I can't wait to either sell the house or take it OFF the market!)

(Here's proof that our boys DO actually tolerate BYU - they're both known to wear BYU t-shirts regularly.)

The LSAT news may come as a surprise to those of you who hadn't heard that Mike has been seriously considering law school. It came as a surprise to me a month ago when he brought it up again (I thought that idea had been dropped) - this didn't leave him much time to study. But true to form, Mike dove in unintimidated. We won't know until mid-October about his score. The amazing part is I have felt so much peace about the whole thing, especially this week running up to the LSAT...and that just doesn't make sense. But I have to believe that at least making the effort is the right thing for him right now.

Football and dirt bikes

It seems to me that both teams from Utah had a punishing weekend... Our boys, who like to label themselves Ute fans (mostly to defy the rest of the family who like BYU - I kind of think that's how most Ute fans see themselves: primarily BYU haters), took things a step further today. We found this posted to their door:Really, charming spelling mistakes aside, this is a little too much.

Yeah, that was a tough game to watch yesterday (especially with a couple of boys gleefully chanting, "Florida State! Florida State!"). I'll leave it at that.

But that's not all we did this weekend:

Mike finally got around to fixing up the kids' bikes. We have a couple of especially sweet vintage dirt bikes (passed on to us by Mike's parents - how cool that they hung on to them all these years!) - in need of parts and repair. This beauty is an awesome Diamond Back from around 1987 - it weighs about 100 lbs - from a time when kids were tough, because if this thing ever fell on you...

Seriously, these are the COOLEST bikes in the neighborhood...not that it's a contest.

Jess taking it for a spin

We also did a garage overhaul...to make room for that doggie palace you see in the picture (Space Donkey taking a load off for the night). Mike's parents were getting rid of this kennel - from when they used to have an Alaskan Malamute. So we traded in Jupiter's old, smaller crate for this. It also fits all 5 kids nicely in case... well...it's just a thought.

Postscript to Peaches

Mom 1969 - before any of us came along

Dear Mom,

I remember as a kid being conscripted into canning duty during the summer months (along with all of my siblings) because I was raised by a mother who couldn't STAND to let perfectly good fruit & vegetables go to waste. Peaches were about the worst of all the things we put into jars. It was hot work scalding peaches in boiling water, the fuzz stuck all over and itched, and without exception I seemed to ruin whatever shirt I was wearing from the juice and the soupy, peachy water in the sink where we worked cutting & peeling. I inherited the intolerance for wasted food. And now the smell of simmering peaches at canning time is one of the most comforting to me. This week you made sure you were here to help put away this year's crop - either because you just like to bottle peaches - or because you felt sorry for a mother of 5. Thanks for the help. Even more thanks for teaching me when I was younger. * I wish that I had a picture of one of those sticky canning days, somehow we never got around to photographing it. This is probably because all your children were making life miserable for you while we worked. It would be funny to see the looks of disgust. *

Love,

Daughter #2

Peach Duty

The peaches are ready on the tree ....actually... OFF the tree (most of them fell overnight this weekend). So - I had to act. I LOVE having fresh ripe peaches every year, and thanks to friendly neighbors (who own the tree that hangs over our fence), we usually harvest a lot of yummy produce.

I spent much of the day and late into the evening bottling peaches - 31 quarts.

Saturday is a special day...

We took it easy yesterday...no, I'm kidding. This is how it really went:

Sisters Sullivan at the finish line: Helen, Bendy, Kay, Ang & Honey

Began the day with the Sisters Sullivan down at the Jordan River Parkway for the Utah Marathon Relay (their slogan: "a whole marathon, 1/5th of the pain" - I can live with that). Of course since sister #1, Holly, is out of the country we had to take on a replacement to complete our team. Our good friend Honey joined us. She is not only a practicing midwife, capable of delivering a baby on the race course should the need have arisen, but also one tough runner. We weren't too shabby considering that we have a combined 15 kids among us, AND considering that Honey actually STOPPED for 8 minutes to administer first aid to an unconscious runner: between 40-50 minute legs each, official time - 4 hours 2 minutes .

...And then we rushed home to rearrange the whole house just for Jessie. By nature we're not mysterious people (I love that line from "Ocean's 12") - but for her birthday we've been secretly planning to surprise her with her OWN room (she's been sharing all her life). What more could an 11 year old want? I got with Holly, my design expert, before she left for Mexico to engineer the switch. And based on a picture in the IKEA catalogue that Jessie had wishfully shown me once, Holly put together measured drawings, detailed shopping lists, and clever solutions for our lack of space. We shipped Jessie off to Mike's parents Friday night and Saturday after the race we dug in and finished the move (thanks to Bendy and Roy-son for the help). Since we were going to surprise her anyway, I figured I would invite a bunch of her friends over for a surprise party too...because we didn't have enough to do. It came off perfectly: her friends kept the secret, we finished on time, Grandma & Grandpa delivered Jessie safely, she was surprised, the kiddos ate their way through about 4 large pizzas, my friend Kirsten helped out with a batch of the cutest birthday cup cakes (thanks!), and ALL of my children are STOKED about their new digs.

So... after many hours of hard work, one long shopping trip to IKEA (and shorter ones to Home Depot and Target),

this is how the rooms turned out...

Grace moved into the room with Sully. This is the girly side of the room.

Jessie's room

Jessie's lounge

The boys' room

The coolest part of the boys' room - the Lego/geology/work table

How all great parties end: with the crash of a stunt-pyramid on the front lawn

I was SO tired at the end of the day. All credit and muchos gracias to Holly.

Paradise

This past weekend we decided to join a few family members on a quick camping trip in Southern Utah at a place called Goblin Valley. How have I never heard of this place?! It was amazing. As soon as we arrived Noble busted out of the car like he was on fire and never quit exploring until we left the next day. After dinner Friday we did a quick hike among the goblins (unbelievable sandstone formations) which ended in a beautiful harvest-moonrise (we could have stayed out by the moonlight - but Sully was tired).

(Sully as night falls among the goblins)

(Casey and Grace in one of many caves)

We explored a sweet slot canyon the next morning...
...where we were surprised by this tiny desert toad in the narrows.
(Helen and Jessie checking out a small rain-water cistern)

Thanks Casey and Helen for the excellent idea. We'll be game for another goblin trip any time anyone wants to go.

Off to Chiapas - again.

I love my siblings. They really are my best friends (after Mitch-darling). Somehow we've all managed to live in the same state (same metropolitan area) for the last several years and it's been heaven. The exceptions are the few semesters a year my little brother spends going to school up at Utah State (he left on Sunday) and my older sister, Holly's, stints with her husband and 2 kids in Mexico doing archaeology (they left yesterday morning). My poor mom. It's tough to say good bye - especially when my sister and her family will be gone almost a year this time. Thank goodness for Skype and internet phone service (my little niece called us last night from their hotel in Mexico City to inform us that she had just had her bath). Plus Mike and I are planning a trip down next Spring to visit them and the site.

Grace is trying to be brave about it, losing her bosom friend, Emory, for so long... ...and I miss my sister so much...which is ironic given the epic battles of our youth and just not "getting" each other until we were in our 20's.

On the bright side, everyone is excited for this archaeological season - and the great professional opportunity it represents for Bruce & Holly. They're funded by National Geographic (I knew my subscription was going to pay-off some day) and Fulbright - so hopefully we'll be able to read all about it next year some time.

To help take our minds off all the separation shock - we've had a few big events to think about:

#1. The Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication on Sunday. That was so cool. I took my usual run up there this morning. I love the view of the valley from the bluff it sits on in South Jordan...I can see the Jordan River Temple just a couple of miles to the east and the Draper Temple up in the hills below Lone Peak where I used to run back in high school.

#2. The start of school today. This is Tillman's first year. I was a little emotional last night about it. He, of course, took it in stride. When I picked him up today he acted like it was just another day.

It's hard to believe that Summer is already past - but if I was having trouble accepting it, all of these sudden changes are helping to punctuate that fact.

Say good-bye kitties...

All of the kittens have been adopted out...more easily than I thought. They all went to homes I felt pretty good about (we personally knew all of the families). We still have one living with us until his new family returns from vacation this next week. It's a good thing too because this gives the kids a little step-down therapy rather than letting go cold-turkey. Baby animals are one of the magic experiences every child should have, right? (Not that I'd jump into that on purpose. Still, it was fun while it lasted.)

Pluto (mother cat) has an appointment with the vet NEXT WEEK.